Leader Leeds
Yorkshires unofficial capital city is the place for historic pubs, great nightlife and world class beer. Richard Jones went for a stroll
It may be home to hundreds of thousands of their ilk, but Leeds refuses to conform to clichés about Yorkshiremen.
Whereas 20 or 30 years ago you might have found its streets (cobbled, inevitably) filled with flat-cap-wearing, ‘chip on both shoulders’, pennypinching characters so memorably lampooned in the Monty Python Four Yorkshiremen sketch, today Leeds is a vibrant, prosperous city packed with trendy bars, designer boutiques and spanking new ‘urban living’ developments.
And it’s also a fantastic city to get together with a group of beer-loving friends and spend the day out enjoying the odd pint or three.
Originally known as Leodis, Leeds was a small, agricultural village for much of the Middle Ages. Its growth into a city was advanced by the textile trade; first as a cottage industry in the 18th century and then on an industrial scale in the 19th century.
The wealth that came to the area in the Victorian age can be seen today in the buildings that were constructed at the time: Leeds Town Hall, Civic Theatre and the stunning domed glass ceiling of the Corn Exchange.
The altogether more recent prosperity of the city owes its success to rather more ethereal industries; financial services, media, government administration and call centres, to name but a few.
The history of brewing in Leeds is, as you might expect, dominated by Tetleys. The company’s giant brewery (the largest cask ale facility in the world) is situated a short walk towards the south of the city but, sinc.....
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By Richard Jones
Section : Beer Journeys
Page number : 43
